Girls tennis: Freshmen Anna Roggenburk and Emma Peeler head to state in good shape after top-three district finishes

ROCKY RIVER — Anna Roggenburk spent all season as Magnificat’s second singles player.

Saturday at the conclusion of the Division I girls district tennis tournament at Tri-City Park, Roggenburk, a freshman and Avon Lake resident, was No. 1 on her team and No. 2 overall.

Roggenburk, who qualified for next week’s state tournament in Mason, a suburb of Cincinnati, defeated Westlake freshman Emma Peeler 6-2, 6-1 in the semifinals before falling 6-0, 6-2 to Hudson’s Molly Sandberg in the finals.

“I’m so excited to be going to state as a freshman,” Roggenburk said. “It’s a great feeling. The goal coming in here was simply to try my best because I know I’m a freshman and I have three more years to try to get to states. Being able to accomplish that goal in my first year is all that matters.

“I felt better going against Emma because I had beaten her last weekend. I just wanted to try my hardest and I won. I actually felt more pressure today than I did Thursday because I wanted as high a seed as possible.”

Peeler rebounded to hang a 6-3, 6-4 loss on Magnificat sophomore and No. 1 singles player Alexandria Vesikallio to take third. Vesikallio, who beat Roggenburk in the sectional final last weekend, lost twice in three matchups with Peeler this season.

“It’s really exciting to know that I’ve come this far as a freshman,” Peeler said. “I’m really happy to be here right now and I’m just hoping to play my best next weekend and see what happens. ... Seeding matters and I didn’t want to have to play a No. 1 down (at state). I was not satisfied with just getting there — I wanted to finish as high as possible here as I could.”

The Avon doubles team of senior Maddie Nakon and junior Ana Lopez will also represent the area at state next Friday and Saturday.

Nakon, who became Avon’s first two-time state qualifier Thursday, and Lopez couldn’t duplicate their success Saturday, losing 6-0, 6-0 to Canfield’s Hannah Cianciola and Ashley Kaleel — the eventual champs — in the semifinals and 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 to Green’s Anne and Maria Zivick in the third-place match.

“The teams are just better the deeper you get in this tournament,” Nakon said. “They play more consistent and you have to be on your best game at all times. They hit better, they serve better. Unfortunately, we just didn’t have our (best) today.

“Things were going well for us (to start the third-place match). We were hitting our shots and they were missing. It seemed like they couldn’t keep up with our power. We just lost our targets in the second set. We tried.”

Lopez, though disappointed in Saturday’s results, is looking forward to her first state experience.

“I’m very happy we’re going down to Cincy,” she said. “I’ve never even been there, let alone played there before, so I think it will be a good experience for both of us.”

Four Magnificat players qualified for state Saturday. Tess Moran and Molly Bauer, who finished third at sectionals, took sixth this weekend with a 6-4, 6-4 loss to Walsh Jesuit’s Skye Harwood and Megan Hissong in the fifth-place match.

“I think it’s going to be so fun going down as a team,” Roggenburk said. “I know we’re all going to support each other to do the best we can down there. I think we’ll have a lot of fans down there too cheering us on because we’ll have four girls there. I’m excited for it.”